Poke House - San Mateo — Restaurant in San Mateo

The plywood entrance door (hopefully temporary) makes this place look closed from the outside. But once you're inside, the interior is bright & inviting, and the food is excellent. They had great options for the poke bowl base (including the rarely-served zucchini noodles and/or mixed greens) and the classic poke protein options (e.g., 2 types of tuna, salmon, crab salad, shrimp, tofu, etc). I got tuna and salmon, both of which were absolutely fresh, tender, and delicious. The other add-ins were appealing (although they are careful to give you a tiny amount so your ingredients don't overfill the bowl). I was also pleased with all the sauce options. They were flavorful, refreshing, and fun to combine in new ways. Tasted great! If you don't want to make your own bowl, they have a few suggestions already on the menu that you can just point to and ask for. Drink options were limited (bottled / cans of tea various teas & water) but acceptable. I didn't see anything decaffeinated (besides water) that was appealing to me though. The employees were nice and patient while I scanned all the ingredient choices. Overall, I really enjoyed the food, the modern atmosphere, and...

To be exact, the rating is 2½ stars. Tried this place for the first time. Inside looked clean. The only staff was not friendly, but courteous. I was taken aback that he wasn't wearing a mask, since all the food items were uncovered. Therefore, if you are very concerned about COVID safety, this might not be a good place to buy poke from.

The food choices were okay. Fish selection was disappointingly limited. There were only two kinds of fish, salmon and tuna. The tuna was mixed with various sauces, and each flavor (e.g. spicy tuna) counted as one selection. So other seafood items listed on the menu, such as shrimp, was unavailable. But I was glad that there was crab, at least. All the food items, including seafood and salad, were fresh. Sauces used were pretty good too.

A big thumbs down to the white rice--it was just too mushy.

Prices were on par with inflation. A medium bowl was about $15, and a big bowl was about $20. Some food items came with extra charge (such as seaweed and avocado).

I probably won't visit again. Comparing to other poke places, this one doesn't stand out. I picked it this time because my friend and I were very hungry and this was the...

We ordered using Olo and Poke House uses Uber Eats for delivery. Our food was dumped over at some point during transit and then dropped on the lobby table just as the delivery person saw my husband coming up front to get it - probably because half of one of the bowls had spilled out into the bag early in transit and the paper bag was disintegrating rapidly coming apart and mixing in bits with what was left in the spilled bowl who's lid was not on it anymore. We notified the restaurant via the app, sent pictures, and did the same with Uber Eats. No one will take responsibility for the failures of the delivery person and refund the cost of the one bowl that couldn't be eaten. This poke is "OK" - not bad, but also not stellar, and at full price for only half a lunch it's not worth it. But if you do decide to eat here don't do delivery, pick it up if you can't sit down and eat in, because whatever happens to your food will be on you and neither party wants to hear or do anything about what went wrong with one of their...